Old/New Testament

Jeremiah becomes free

40 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again after Captain Nebuzaradan let him go free at Ramah. Jeremiah was with all the other people of Jerusalem and Judah that Captain Nebuzaradan was taking to Babylon. He was taking them in chains, as his prisoners. But he removed the chains from Jeremiah in Ramah.^{[a] 2} He said this to Jeremiah when they were alone: ‘The Lord your God warned your people that he would bring trouble to this place. ³ Now he has done that. The Lord has done what he promised to do. He sent this trouble because your people did not obey the Lord. They turned against him. ⁴ But today I am taking the chains off your hands so that you can go free. You can come with me to Babylon, if you choose to do that. If you come, I will take care of you. But if you do not choose to come with me, you do not have to do that. You are a free man. You may go to any part of the land that you choose.’

⁵ But before Jeremiah turned away from him, Captain Nebuzaradan said, ‘Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah. The king of Babylon chose him to rule over the towns of Judah. Go and live with Gedaliah, among the people of Judah. Or you may go to any other place that you choose.’

Captain Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah some food and a gift. Then he let him go. ⁶ So Jeremiah went to live with Gedaliah in Mizpah. He stayed among the few people who continued to live in Judah.

Gedaliah rules Judah

⁷ Some officers of Judah's army were living in fields in the country, with their soldiers.^[b] They heard news that the king of Babylon had chosen Ahikam's son Gedaliah to have authority over Judah. He ruled over the very poor people of Judah who continued to live there. They were the men, women and children that Babylon's soldiers had not taken away as prisoners. ⁸ These army officers and their soldiers came to meet with Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers were:

⁹ Gedaliah made a serious promise to them that he would not hurt them. He said, ‘Do not be afraid to serve the soldiers from Babylon. Make your homes here in our land, but agree to serve the king of Babylon. If you do that, you will be successful. ¹⁰ I myself will stay here in Mizpah. If Babylon's officers come to visit me, I will speak on your behalf. But you should go and live in the towns that you have taken for yourselves. Then you can eat the things that you grow in your fields. You can pick grapes to make wine and olives to make oil. You can pick dates and figs. You can store these things in jars.’

¹¹ There were people of Judah who had run away to live in Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries. They heard the news that the king of Babylon had let some people continue to live in Judah. They also heard that he had chosen Ahikam's son Gedaliah to be their ruler. ¹² As a result, all those people returned to their homes in Judah. On their way, they stopped in Mizpah to meet Gedaliah. When they arrived, they picked a big harvest of dates, figs and grapes to make wine.

Ishmael murders Gedaliah

¹³ Kareah's son Johanan came to Mizpah to see Gedaliah. He came with the other army officers who had been hiding in the country. ¹⁴ They said to Gedaliah, ‘You should know that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Nethaniah's son Ishmael to kill you.’ But Gedaliah did not believe them.

¹⁵ So while Johanan was in Mizpah, he went to speak to Gedaliah alone. He said, ‘Let me go and kill Nethaniah's son Ishmael. Nobody will know who did it. If I do not kill him, he will surely kill you. Then the people of Judah who are here with you will run away. The few people who still remain in Judah will all disappear.’

¹⁶ But Ahikam's son Gedaliah, said to Kareah's son Johanan, ‘Do not do that! I do not believe the things that you tell me about Ishmael.’

41 But in the seventh month of the year, Nethaniah's son Ishmael went to Mizpah to visit Ahikam's son Gedaliah. Ishmael was the grandson of Elishama who belonged to the royal family. He had been an officer who served King Zedekiah. Ishmael brought ten of his men with him. They were all eating a meal with Gedaliah in Mizpah. ² During the meal, Ishmael and his ten men stood up. They took hold of their swords and they killed Gedaliah, Ahikam's son and grandson of Shaphan. Ishmael and his men killed the man that the king of Babylon had chosen to rule Judah. ³ Ishmael also killed the men of Judah and the soldiers of Babylon who were there with Gedaliah.

⁴ The next day, before anyone knew about Gedaliah's murder, ⁵ 80 men arrived in Mizpah. They had come from their homes in Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria. They brought grain offerings and incense to offer to the Lord in his temple. They had cut off their beards, torn their clothes and cut their skin to show that they were very upset. ⁶ Nethaniah's son Ishmael went out of the city to meet them. He was weeping as he went. When he met the men, he said to them, ‘Come with me to meet Ahikam's son Gedaliah.’ ⁷ So they all went into the city. Then Ishmael and his men killed them. They threw the dead bodies into a deep hole which stored water. ⁸ But ten of the men said, ‘Please do not kill us! We have hidden lots of wheat, barley, olive oil and honey in a field. We will give it to you.’ So Ishmael let them stay alive. He did not kill them with the other men. ⁹ Ishmael filled the deep hole with all the dead bodies of the men he had murdered. The hole had been built by King Asa to store water. Asa had dug holes like that to keep the city safe from King Baasha of Israel.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael took hold of all the other people in Mizpah who were still alive. He made them his prisoners. These people included the king's daughters, as well as all the other people who remained in Mizpah. Captain Nebuzaradan had said that Ahikam's son Gedaliah would have authority over those people. But Ishmael took them away as his prisoners. He started to take them towards the land of Ammon.

Johanan rescues the people from Ishmael

¹¹ Kareah's son Johanan and the army officers who were with him heard news about what had happened. They heard about the wicked things that Nethaniah's son Ishmael had done. ¹² So they took all their soldiers to go and fight against Ishmael. They chased after him. They caught him near the large pool at Gibeon. ¹³ All the people that Ishmael had taken as his prisoners saw Johanan and the officers who were with him. They were very happy to see them. ¹⁴ All the people that Ishmael had taken away from Mizpah ran away from him. They went to join Kareah's son Johanan. ¹⁵ But Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan. They went to live among the Ammonite people.

¹⁶ Johanan and the army officers who were with him led the people away from Gibeon. Those were the people who were still alive in Mizpah after Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah. Now Johanan and his men had rescued them from Ishmael. Johanan brought those men, women, children, soldiers and palace officers away from Gibeon.

¹⁷ They started on the way towards Egypt. They stopped at Geruth Kimham, a town that is near Bethlehem. ¹⁸ They were afraid that the soldiers of Babylon would want to kill them. They would be angry because Nethaniah's son Ishmael had killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah. The king of Babylon had chosen Gedaliah to rule Judah.

The people do not obey the Lord's message

42 All the army officers went to speak to the prophet Jeremiah. They included Kareah's son Johanan and Hoshaiah's son Jezaniah. All the people went with them, important people and ordinary people. ² They said to Jeremiah, ‘Please listen to us. Pray to the Lord your God for those of us who remain alive. You can see that only a few of us remain from the many people that we were before. ³ Please ask the Lord to tell us where we should go. Ask him what we should do.’

⁴ The prophet Jeremiah replied, ‘I agree to do that. I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked me to do. I will tell you everything that the Lord says to answer you. I will not hide anything from you.’

⁵ They said to Jeremiah, ‘We promise to do everything that the Lord sends you to say to us. We ask the Lord to listen to our promise. May he punish us if we do not do what we have promised to do. ⁶ We have asked you to pray to the Lord our God for us. We will obey what he tells us to do. We will obey him whether we like what he tells us, or whether we do not like it. We will obey him because we want to enjoy a good life.’

⁷ Ten days after that, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. ⁸ So Jeremiah told Kareah's son Johanan, the other army officers and all the people to come to him. That included everyone, important people and ordinary people. ⁹ Jeremiah said to them, ‘You sent me to ask the Lord, Israel's God, what you should do. He says this to you: ¹⁰ “You should stay here in the land of Judah. If you do that, I will build you up and make you strong again. I will not knock you down. I will help you to grow in the land, like plants with good roots. I will not pull you up. I have punished you with terrible trouble, and that makes me very sad. So now I will help you. ¹¹ You are afraid of the king of Babylon now, but do not be afraid of him any more. I am with you to help you. I will save you and I will rescue you from his power. I, the Lord, promise you this. ¹² I will be kind and I will help you. I will cause the king of Babylon to be kind to you. He will let you return to your own land as your home.”

¹³ You must not refuse to obey this message from the Lord your God. Do not say, “We will not stay here in this land.” ¹⁴ Do not say, “We refuse to stay here. Instead, we will go to live in Egypt. There, we will not have trouble from wars. We will not hear the noise of trumpets as people fight battles. We will not be hungry because there is no food.” ¹⁵ If you say those things, then the Lord has a message for you, you people who remain in Judah. The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you decide to go and live in Egypt, I will cause you to have the same troubles there. ¹⁶ You are afraid of wars here, but I will cause wars to hurt you in Egypt. You worry that you might be hungry here, but I will make you hungry in Egypt. Finally, you will die in Egypt. ¹⁷ All the people who decide to go and live in Egypt will die there. War, famine or disease will kill everyone. Nobody will escape from the terrible trouble that I will send. Nobody will remain alive.”

¹⁸ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you go to Egypt, I will be very angry with you. I punished the people of Jerusalem because I was very angry with them. I will be as angry as that with you, if you go to Egypt. Other people will think that you are disgusting. They will insult you. They will use your name as a curse, because God has cursed you. You will never see this land of Judah again.”

¹⁹ Listen to me, you people who still remain in Judah. The Lord has said to you, “Do not go to Egypt.” You must understand that I am now warning you. ²⁰ You made a terrible mistake when you asked me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You told me, “Tell us everything that the Lord our God says, and we will do it.” ²¹ Today I have told you what he said. But you still do not want to obey the Lord. You will not do what he sent me to tell you. ²² So now I tell you this: When you go to the place where you want to live, war, famine or disease will kill you.’

God's special place of rest

4 God promised his people that they could go to his special place of rest. That promise is still true for us today. So we must be very careful. Do not fail to arrive in that place. We certainly do not want that to happen. ² We have heard God's good news, just like God's people in the wilderness heard his message. But that message did not help them, because they did not believe it. They did not trust God, like those who obeyed him. ³ But those of us who trust God do enjoy his special place of rest. This is what God said:

God said that, even though he had finished his work when he made the world. ⁴ In the Bible God has spoken about the seventh day like this:

⁵ As we have already seen, God said something later about his rest:

⁶ So we see that there is still a chance for people to go to God's place of rest. But those people who first heard God's message in the wilderness refused to obey him. As a result, they did not arrive in his special place of rest. ⁷ So God chose another time for people to go to his place of rest. He called it ‘Today’. A long time after Moses, David spoke God's message. As we have already seen, he said:

⁸ This shows that Joshua did not bring God's people to the place where they could rest. Later, God had to speak again about another day of rest. ⁹ So we see this: God still has a place ready for his people, where they can rest. They will rest as God rested on the seventh day. ¹⁰ When God made the world and everything, he rested after he had finished his work. It is the same for everyone who goes to God's place of rest. They too will rest. They will no longer need to work.^[c]

¹¹ So we must do everything possible to arrive in God's special place of rest. God's people in the wilderness did not obey him. We must not be like them. If we do not obey God, we also will fail to arrive in that place.

¹² So be careful! God's message to us is alive and powerful. It is like a sword that has two sharp edges. Even more than a sword, God's message goes very deep into us. It cuts between our soul and our spirit. It is like a sharp knife that can cut deep into our body between our bones. God's message shows what we are really thinking. It shows what we really want. ¹³ There is nothing in the whole world that can hide from God. He sees everything clearly and he knows everything. We will have to explain to him everything that we have done during our lives.

Jesus is our great priest

¹⁴ Jesus, the Son of God, helps us as God's most important priest. He is our great priest who has gone up into heaven. We say that we believe in him. So we must continue to show people that we trust him. ¹⁵ Jesus, our great priest understands us. He knows how weak we are. He knows that we sometimes want to do wrong things. The Devil tried to make him do all those same kinds of wrong things. But Jesus never did anything wrong. ¹⁶ So we should come near to God and we should not be afraid. God is our King. We can ask him to help us when we need help. We know that he will forgive us and he will be kind to us in whatever way we need.^[d]